1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
The body of a recent image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera is becoming smaller and thinner, whereas a display unit such as a liquid crystal monitor mounted on the body is becoming large. This leads to an issue that a sufficient area of a user grip for picking up an object image is hard to be secured on the body. To solve this, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-134697 proposes a grip capable of being supported in a state spaced apart from the body front wall.
A conventional image pickup device adopts a so-called monocock body structure. Therefore, in order to mount a user grip on the body, either concave and convex portions are required to be formed on the body or a separate grip member proposed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-134697 is required. Namely, if an easy-to-hold performance is to be considered for the monocock body structure, there is no choice but to make large the concave and convex portions formed on the body or the separate grip member fabricated for the body.
Furthermore, if the monocock body structure is used, the body size and the size of the concave and convex portions formed on the body are fixed, so that requirements of all users cannot be met. Therefore, for example, users having large hands and users handling cameras with gloves are forced to select another type having a large body size even if the users desire the type having a small body size.